Active volcano among the most famous of the world, the Vesuvius, during his around 10 thousand years of existence, has been protagonist of about seventy eruptions: the more tragically famous goes up to the 79 d.C., when lava and ash buried the city of Pompeii, Ercolano and Stabia. From 1995 the area of the Vesuvius has become National Park. The eruptions have cancelled the vegetation and every time the plants have had to restart afresh to colonize the lava rocks.Only the birch tree remained of the ancient mediterranean forest of ilexes that the slopes of the volcano covered.; we meet them in the Valley of the Giant, on the Atrio del Cavallo and among the "cognoli" (pinnacles of tufa and lava ) of S. Anastasia.On the external slopes of the Mount Somma, we find a thick forest of roverella, Neapolitan maple and robinia. The most recent laves have been colonized by a grey-silver lichen, while among the oldest there are the brooms, the rural artemisia and the elicriso.On the southern slopes of Vesuvius and on three quarters of the crater, the Natural Reserve Tirone-High Vesuvius extends , founded for protecting woods of maritime pine and pine of Aleppo. The poverty of the vegetable environments has not allowed the settlement of many animals: among the mammals there are the doormouse, the dormouse, the mouse quercino, the fox, the weasel, the marten; decidedly more interesting the birds, with imperial crows on the peaks of the Somma and the Vesuvius, goldfinches, great red woodpeckers, owls. Among the reptiles it is easy to meet the dark biacco between the lava rocks and the cervone in the woods of the Mount Somma.

HOW TO ARRIVE

Throught he access to the coastal slope of the Park, cross the highway A3 Napoli - Salerno up to the exits of Ercolano or Torre del Greco, to reach via San Vito or via Vesuvio according to the exit and continue following the indications for the top of the volcano.
Trough via Martone exit to Torre Annunziata and continue in direction Trecase.
For access to the slope Sommese is useful to refer to SS 268 attainable from Naples following the indication for Paesi Vesuviani, from Nola crossing the SS 166.
It is possible to reach all the localities of the Park by Circumvesuviana (Lines Naples-Torre Annunziata Naples-Sorrento, Naples-Poggiomarino-Sarno, Naples-Ottaviano-Sarno).